Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Well, spring is fully here and summer is on its way, so I start thinking about pretty clothes to wear. Now I love shopping as much as the next person (if the next person INSANELY loves shopping and can do it all day and the next day and the day after that) but even I faltered during my recent search for a pretty swishy summer skirt. Too short, too flimsy, too long, too lairy. So I sewed one for myself, and it turned out fine.

I can't believe I used to make all my clothes. Every single damn thing except t-shirts. It made sense when I was an impoverished student I guess, and then living in PNG where there was no shopping (the horror!), but it seems so alien to me now. I have boxes of paper patterns that I can't bear to give away.

On the odd occasion though, it still comes in handy. Nearly warm enough for the peep toe shoes!!! And, of course, childbearing hips never go out of fashion.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Well, I have been introduced to a new wonder - the priority box which, apparently, can hold 30 yards of fabric! I didn't believe such fabulous things could exist, until one arrived. And with the current exchange rate this princely pile cost me about $185 Australian for 30 yards including shipping .... or about $450 less than it would have in the shops.

I love fabric, I love a bargain, and I LOVE getting things in the mail.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I enjoyed making the bias strips for the baskets' handles - and used them again on a border for a yellow and blue medallion that I'm slowly picking away at. It looks good, so I thought - why not make a quilt just out of wavy lines and bias strips? And I did.

I used one of the "gangrene" dyed fabrics for the middle brown bit, and I think it does look terribly ugly. Turns out ugly colours can look really bad! Who would have thought it?

There are also only a limited number of shapes you can make with this size of bias strip. A gentle wave, a rainbow arc and that's just about it. I might explore further with these things ... or maybe not. Mind you, I do have half a scrap basket full of bias strips now, so perhaps I should persevere.

It's hand quilted in big stitch with two strands of embroidery floss to loosen it up a bit and give some obvious texture. And because it's quick to do, and I wasn't impressed enough with it to spend hours on little stitches.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

So, when I'd finished the blue one, I didn't have anything to hand quilt ... so did this bright little liberated square-in-a-square. Fun to piece and fun to quilt! Pink and purple and orange all together.

I decided to do the quilting uniformly dense rather than a bit more randomly spaced, which is what I normally do. The even lines tend to blend into the background a bit more. I think I prefer varying the spacing of the quilting.